Cranberry Cake w/Chocolate Mousse: Elegant Holiday Cake Recipe

Elegant Holiday Cake Recipes: Cranberry Cake w/Chocolate Mousse

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Creme Fraiche Frosting

I love the Creme Fraiche frosting for this cake. It holds up well, with no weeping or melting. Don't be intimidated by it! "Creme Fraiche" sounds fancy, but it's just cream that you culture with a bit of buttermilk (that is, you let it sit in a warm spot for 3 or 4 days). The result is: A great frosting that holds its shape and is easy to work with. The touch of tang that the buttermilk has "bred" into it gives it a subtle hint of sour, like you find in cheese cake. It's wonderful.

Sponge Cake Recipes

I have a few variations on the theme of "Sponge Cake Recipes". You can start with the basic yellow sponge cake, and add various flavored syrups to the otherwise slightly-dry cake layers. That's the beauty of sponge cake: It's meant to absorb that extra moisture and flavor in the syrups that you add afterward.

One variation is my Orange Cake Recipe. Check it out! The "syrup" I use isn't any expensive, fancy syrup; just frozen orange juice concentrate, with a touch of honey in it. I'll also be posting another sponge cake recipe soon; I used pistachios in place of almonds, for a different take on the traditional almond paste filling.

The sponge cake is also known as a genoise cake; it's a cake made light by whipping slightly-warmed eggs and sugar. No extra baking powder, no folding in of whipped egg whites... I was intrigued by the idea of whipping the warmed eggs and sugar in one simple step. I thought, might this be one more easy chocolate dessert recipe I can add to my repoirtoire?! Well, not exactly super easy, but it is manageable.

Best Cake Recipes

I do love finely-prepared baked goods. OK, I'm a dessert-snob... I don't even want to waste the calories if it's not homemade! But it can be challenging for the occasional baker to pull off a nice chocolate cake, one that's cooked through but not dry, that's light and not too dense.

I suppose that's the beauty of the sponge cake recipe. The cake turns out light and cooked-through, even though it would be rather dry if not for the syrup sprinkled on after baking. If added into the batter, it'd be so moist that it'd be harder for it to cook through. Yes, I guess those French really knew what they were doing!

Almond Paste Recipes

I've included a basic almond paste recipe for this cake, although you can make it without the layer of almond paste

I roll out the almond paste between layers of plastic wrap, then lift the bottom piece of wrap, plus the almond paste, onto the cake layers. A bit tricky, but doable.

Cranberry Cake w/Chocolate Mousse

This recipe has a few steps; definitely more involved than a box cake. But it's perfect for graduation parties and other larger occasions when you can't afford to buy an expensive, fancy cake, but want something homemade and special. It's a pretty rich cake, and can be cut in smaller pieces. This recipe serves 20 or so.

Ingredients:

1 qt. whipping cream (4 c.)
1/4 c. buttermilk
12 oz. bag (3 c.) cranberries
1 1/4 c. sugar, for cranberry process
3/4 c. water, for cranberry process
4 eggs
2/3 c. sugar
3 TBS. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
scant 1/2 c. flour
scant 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 c. leftover syrup from cranberry process (or substitute seedless raspberry jam)
2 TBS. frozen orange juice concentrate
Scant 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 TBS. water
1 c. Confectioner's sugar
1 TBS. vanilla

Creme Fraiche

This will be used in the frosting, to be whipped. Fresh cream (instead of Creme Fraiche) could be substituted, if you haven't done this step.

Two or so days earlier, heat in small saucepan, to lukewarm (85 degrees): > 4 c. whipping cream
Remove from heat and mix in: > 1/4 c. buttermilk
Cover and let stand in warm, draft-free area until slightly thickened, 24-48 hours. Cover and refrigerate until using.

Candied Cranberries

This step is fairly elaborate, designed to result in cranberries that are cooked and sweetened, but still nice and plump (no easy task!). Specialty grocery stores often have a nice dried cranberry that would substitute perfectly; in that case, forego this step in the cake-making.

Place in bowl: > 12 oz. bag (3 c.) cranberries
Cook in small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves: > 1 1/4 c. sugar > 3/4 c. water
Increase heat, bringing sugar/water mix to a boil. Pour boiling syrup over berries. Weight berries with a plate. Steam the berries, having bowl sit on a steamer rack, covering and steaming for 45 min. A crock pot works well; set the bowl of cranberries in the crock pot, filled with 2" or so of water. This will cook the berries in the sugar syrup without having them burst open; the steaming process assures that they won't cook at too high a heat and turn to mush. Also, they tend to float, hence the plate is used to weight them down.
After steaming, let stand at room temperature for 2-4 days without stirring.

Chocolate "Genoise" Cake

Prehat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8x2" round cake pan; dust with flour. In warm area (like on top of stove), heat until lukewarm, stirring occasionally: > 4 eggs > 2/3 c. sugar
In separate cup, melt mixture of: > 3 TBS. butter > 1 tsp. vanilla
Mix dry ingredients together separately: > scant 1/2 c. flour > scant 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
Beat egg/sugar mix until tripled in volume. Sift one third of flour mixture over eggs and fold in. Repeat two more times. Fold in melted butter/vanilla last. Put into prepared pan and bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and is springy, about 30 min. Let cool.

Drain cranberries, reserving syrup. Mix together and set aside: > 1/4 c. syrup > 2 TBS. frozen orange juice concentrate

Split the sponge cake into three layers using serrated knife. Put first layer (cut-side up) onto cake plate (or onto an 8" cardboard round). Brush the cut side of all three layers with the cranberry/orange mixture.

Chocolate Mousse, and White Frosting

Microwave 30 seconds or so, and stir until melted: > Scant 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips > 3 TBS. water
Set the melted chocolate mixture aside and let cool off some. Meanwhile, whip just until soft peaks form: > 4 1/4 c. chilled Creme Fraiche (or substitute straight whipping cream)
To prepare the Chocolate Mousse, fold into the cooled chocolate mixture: > 1 c. of the above whipped Creme Fraiche
Set aside. Meanwhile, to the rest of the whipped Creme Fraiche add: > 1 c. Confectioner's sugar > 1 TBS. vanilla

To finish assembling cake, add to first cake layer on the cake plate: > Half the candied cranberries > Half the Chocolate Mousse mixture
Add the middle layer of the cake next, also topping with: > Almost Half the candied cranberries (save some for garnishing) > The other Half the Chocolate Mousse mixture
Finally, add top layer of cake (cut-side down), and frost entire cake with the White Frosting. Top with some cranberry garnishes, and perhaps some shavings of dark chocolate along the sides.